In many hospital and clinical situations narcotic medications need to be tightly controlled with a means for auditing the dispensation of such medications. In many instances Federal and State regulations require the date and time of dispensation registered to a particular patient's chart. The data logging activity by caregivers, hospital staff or even the patient's themselves often gets forgotten or inaccurately recorded. In some instances, the medicine is stolen making it impossible to account for every pill dispensed. Healthcare facilities have difficulty complying with Federal and State narcotic regulations under these conditions.
Existing products used by hospitals are large and expensive, typically one per floor, that attempt to solve at least part of the existing auditing problems. All controlled substances are placed in a plurality of compartments inside of the machine as stock medicine. Smaller facilities or clinics usually cannot afford such machines. These machines are not immune to theft since the pills of a particular medicine and/or dose are placed in one compartment, where the staff is entrusted to take only one.
Numerous dispensing machines exist and are described in the art. For example:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,616,316 to Hanpeter describes a medication compliance monitoring device which registers, in a microcomputer memory, the time a patient removed a dose from the blister pack to be evaluated by a physician.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,998,356 to Christensen describes an apparatus using a plurality of magazines, each containing a number of doses placed in rotatable compartments. The dispensing time is preprogrammed into the apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,267,942 to Wick Jr. et al. describes a pharmaceutical storage and dispensing cabinet. It provides the date and time of removal, and the identity of the recipient.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,810,198 to Townsend et al. describes a motorized tablet dispenser in which pills are placed in a rotating hopper.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,047,948 to Turner describes a portable device for dispensing medication to a patient in response to programmed signals entered within a control device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,652 to Aten, et al. describes a medicine dispenser which alerts the patient to the times for dispensing and administering medication. Dispensing is allowed only in accordance with a predefined schedule and records the actual time of container dispensing.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,847,764 to Halvorson describes a system of dispensing medications in a healthcare institution where the pharmacy enters medication orders and a computer controls the dispensing of medications in remote medication dispensers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,609,268 to Shaw describes an automatic pill dispensing apparatus having a plurality of cartridges supported in guide slots within a housing. The apparatus is integrated with a microprocessor operating according to an algorithm, which receives, stores and processes prescription schedule data. Each cartridge has a plurality of compartments disposed about its periphery for containing medication to be dispensed at proper intervals at a dispensing position. A dispense bar is manually actuated by the user to eject scheduled medication into a tray for user access. The plurality of cartridges enable filling by a pharmacist of independent multiple prescriptions. After the cabinet housing is loaded for use, the housing is locked to prevent access unless a security code is entered into the processor. A dislodging wire sweeps through each compartment as the dispense bar is depressed, thereby dislodging the medication from the compartment for user access.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,408,443 to Weinberger describes a medication-dispensing system including a prescribing data entry station for use by a physician to store prescription information in a portable prescribing module, a dispensing data entry station for use by a pharmacist to store dispensing information in a portable dispensing data storage unit, and a medication dispenser responsive to information stored in the portable prescribing module to describe use of medication in the dispenser in accordance with a regimen prescribed by the physician and to the dispensing data storage unit to control dispensing of the medication.
Although each of the systems described above provide some form of auditing and possibly some additional benefits for avoiding mistakes in dispensing double dosages, none of the solutions above provide adequate auditing features and reduce the liability points for tampering in a cost effective and portable manner. Thus, a need exists for a dispensing system that ensures compliance and reduces costs that insurance companies and federal agencies have to pay as a result of poor auditing and abusive dispensation.